Uintathere Rescue

I received an urgent phone call on my cell phone the morning of the 29^th of July. A Uintathere skull had been uncovered at a construction site in Colorado and they needed to get it out of the way quickly. They asked if I could bring a group over to excavate. I told them that I was just finishing up a dig at Swarez and that we could be there the next morning. So, Bill and I closed up the Swarez site and left for Price. 

 

Bill and I left for Colorado early Thursday morning and arrived at the site at 10 am. Excavation was already underway and the equipment trailer had been hauled to the site. The Uintathere skull is in a sandstone concretion surrounded by softer sandstone. A turtle shell with bones and a skull were also preserved in the concretion. This is the first discovery of a Uintathere skull in this area and skulls from turtles are extremely rare making this a very important find. 

 We were fortunate to have heavy equipment in the area that we could call on to help with the excavation.

We used a small trackhoe to pull the matrix from around the concretion and expose it in preparation to be jacketed. This saved us many hours of work by hand. After the trackhoe had finished, we were able to undercut using an electric jackhammer and hand tools.

 

We used a hammer drill to honeycomb part of the concretion so it could be removed. This was to reduce the weight of the final jacket to make it easier to handle.

 

 

We then covered the exposed fossils with paper towels and moistened them with water to hold them in place. For the jacket, we used plaster of paris and burlap strips. Because this is a large jacket, we put on several layers. We let it dry and set up overnight and the next morning, with the help of a larger trackhoe, the jacket was rolled over and we were able to complete the jacket on the bottom side. 

 used the trackhoe to do a quick survey of the area. We found two more concretions with fossil bone from the Uintathere close by. One of these we jacketed and the other we collected as it was found. 

Monday morning we loaded all the fossils and jackets on the flatbed trailer and left the area to the bulldozers. We had a great crew and the heavy equipment operators were great to work with. This find would not have been discovered without the cooperative efforts of all those involved. I am thankful for the opportunity to work on this dig. 

Mothers and Sons at Suarez

I feel I should apologize to the participants of this excavation since I told them I would have this up more than a week ago. However, I received an emergency call about a Uintathere that needed rescue over in Colorado (details in my next blog).

Monday morning (July 27, 2009) Bill, Sage and I loaded up our equipment and headed for Green River, Utah where we met up with two mothers and their sons; Toddy and her son Lee, and Jody and her son Jerimy.

Of course on our way to the quarry we made our usual stop at Crystal Geyser. It was making a few burps and belches but no eruption at this time. I was able to add to my collection of geyser photos.

We reached our camp just before lunch so we ate before going to the site. Last time we were at Suarez we left some of our tools and this time we only needed a few items, making the walk up the hill easier.

We cleared off the site and put the shades up. It wasn’t long before we were into excavation mode.

Much of the overburden had been removed on our previous excursion but even so, using hammers and screw drivers the bones were slow to show themselves. The first day we only found a half dozen bones. Unfortunately, one of our young paleontologists was not feeling well by evening.

I drove him and his mother to Green River so hopefully he could recover. They had a three day river trip coming up and they didn’t want to miss it. On the way out, I noticed the geyser was exciting for my two guests and we arrived in time for a few good photos. After some ice cream in Green River and finding a motel for Jerimy and his mother, I headed back to camp.

Tuesday, we headed back up to the site and found a few bones that we were able to record and map. Toddy and Lee needed to leave us after lunch to meet up with Jody and Jerimy. They were headed for Moab and a river trip.

Bill and I continued excavations the rest of the day and Wednesday morning. All-together we collected about 30 more fossil bones. Another fun and successful trip. On the way out the geyser was erupting again so Bill and I enjoyed watching another display of erupting water.